Gandhinagar: More than 5,000 Anganwadi schools in Gujarat are facing absence of toilets in Gujarat. Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) had tabled a report in the Gujarat Assembly today which reveals that shocker news that more than 5,000 Anganwadi centers in the state did not have toilets as of the last year.
The BJP government tabled the audit report on local bodies for the year ended on March 2013 today, the last day of the legislature’s session.
It also said that the performance audit of ‘total sanitation campaign’ was conducted for the period 2008-2013.
The campaign which was launched by the Centre in 1999 was renamed as Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan in 2012.
Several deficiencies are also reported by CAG in the implementation of this campaign in rural parts of Gujarat.
The scheme provides for construction of toilets at Anganwadis (government-run nursery or primary schools).
22,505 Anganwadi toilets (ATs) were to be constructed by March 2009 as per the target which was set by the Gujarat government. It was later revised to 30,516 in April 2012.
CAG report stated, “Against the overall target of 30,516 ATs, the achievement was 25,422 (83 per cent) as of March 2013. The position in Jamnagar was low and achievement was only 47 per cent. Resultantly, children of Anganwadis continued to be deprived of a basic amenity.”
Interestingly the Gujarat Assembly, a day earlier, passed a Bill making having a toilet at home a pre-requisite for contesting the local body polls.
Report claims, “The scheme guidelines of 2007 provide that toilets should be constructed in all government schools by March 2008… As against the target of 28,617 toilet units, only 20,390 units (71 pc) were completed as of March 2008 by Sarv Siksha Abhiyan Mission.”
CAG also said that a Central committee set a revised target of 40,439 toilets to be constructed in schools across the state in March 2012 but that target too was not achieved.
Report said, “As against the target of 40,439 toilets for the entire state, only 36,438 were completed as of March 2013 at an expenditure of Rs 90.84 crore.”
“The toilets were either not put to use, or (used) for a short period due to inferior quality,” claims report over toilets constructed by 37 village panchayats in five districts for the below-poverty-line families which were constructed by expenditure of Rs 2.80 crore.
Notify that this report also show loop holes in “Gujarat Model” which BJP claimed that it can be set as a role model in developing other states of India during General elections. Interestingly, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hails from Gujarat and before PM, he was Chief Minister of Gujarat. Modi set the mission of “Swachh Bharat Abhiyan” and roar on the issue of toilets during General elections but such loop holes shows the reality of “Gujarat Model”
Bureau Report
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